Guiding his 9-inch telescope by hand, amateur astronomer Rob Bullen snapped this extraordinary shot of the Space Shuttle Discovery approaching the International Space Station over Gloucestershie, England, last Saturday. Here’s what he had to say:

After a very cloudy day the skies cleared to allow a view of this stunning pass of the ISS and Discovery. I could not believe the timing was so fortuitous to show the shuttle closing in on the station. I captured this, what I guess could potentially be, a once in a lifetime image of these two spaceships travelling as separate craft using Canon EOS 40D using eyepiece projection through a hand guided 8.5 inch Newton.

A truly incredible glimpse of some of our most breathtaking technological work captured with just a couple of thousand bucks of gear. [Space Weather via Bad Astronomy, Image: Rob Bullen]